Referral Partner Opportunities With GAP Investments

If you work with property owners in Costa Rica — as a broker, a property manager, an attorney, an accountant or a relocation adviser — you already meet the people this market is built for. You just may not recognise them as loan candidates, because they do not look like people who need money.

This page explains who is referable, what to send, what happens afterwards and how you are paid.

Why the opportunity exists at all

One rule creates almost all of it. Bank credit in Costa Rica requires permanent residency, and reaching permanent residency takes four years at minimum. That leaves a large group of owners outside the banking system entirely — people who bought for cash on arrival, own their property free of debt, have provable income, and would have arranged a loan over an afternoon back home.

They are not distressed and they are not poor credit risks. They are solvent owners with an immigration file still in progress, and they usually have no idea a private option exists. That gap is where a referral becomes valuable to everyone involved.

Who is worth referring

Four things make an owner referable, and you can establish all four in a normal conversation.

They own titled property. Registered at the National Registry with a folio number. Land held by possession alone, and concession property in the coastal band, cannot carry an ordinary lien — worth knowing before anyone gets hopeful.

They need $50,000 or more. That is where loans start; there is no upper limit.

There is a reason and a timeline. Completing a build, expanding a business, bridging a sale, buying something before it goes. A purpose you can state in a sentence is a good sign.

They can say how it gets repaid. A sale, a refinance once residency comes through, business cash flow. This is the single most useful thing you can establish, because it is the first thing a lender asks.

What does not work

Saving everyone time matters as much as spotting the good ones. Property with no folio number. Concession land near the beach. An owner who wants to borrow most of what the property is worth — files sit comfortably below value, not close to it. And an owner who cannot describe how the principal comes back at maturity.

What to send

An introduction does not need a package. Name and contact, where the property is and the folio number if you have it, roughly what it is worth, how much they are looking for, what it is for, and when they need it.

If all you have is a name and a phone number, send that. We would rather have a short conversation than have you do work that belongs to us.

What happens next

We take it from there. That means the Registry study showing existing liens and annotations, the appraisal, the owner’s documents, the company books and signing authority where a corporation holds the title, and the loan structure — the full document list is here if you want to see what the owner will be asked for.

The file is then presented to lenders, who decide individually. Rates run 9% to 16% annually depending on what the file shows, terms from six months to three years, and closing costs come to roughly 8% of the loan between legal fees and GAP’s fee.

From a lender saying yes to funds moving is normally a few weeks. The usual cause of delay is not the property — it is the paperwork of the company that owns it. If you can nudge an owner to get their company books current early, you will have done more for the timeline than anything else.

How you are paid

Earn up to 20% of GAP’s commission on a referred loan that GAP accepts and that closes and funds. Our commission is one part of the closing costs — the roughly 8% of the loan covering the legal work and our fee — so what you earn is a share of what we earn on the transaction rather than a percentage of the loan itself.

Two conditions sit inside that sentence and both matter. The loan has to be accepted by GAP, meaning the file came through the review described above. And it has to close and fund — the fee is paid on completion, not on introduction, so a file that stalls or an owner who changes their mind earns nothing. Where a particular introduction lands within that range is agreed with you at the time.

No lending experience is required. You introduce the lead and GAP reviews the file. You are not expected to structure anything, assess the collateral, or manage a lending process.

Why this fits your existing work

A real estate broker meets buyers who cannot finance and sellers waiting on a sale that has not closed. A property manager knows which owners are carrying a cost they would rather not carry, and which properties are held free of debt. An attorney or accountant sees the balance sheet and the residency file at the same time. A relocation adviser meets people three months after they arrive with capital and no local options.

In each case the referral solves the client’s problem rather than selling them something — which is the only kind of introduction worth making if you want to keep the relationship.

A note on the other side of the transaction

Some referral partners end up lending themselves once they see how the files are put together. There is no requirement to, and no conflict if you do. The lender side is explained here, and the currently open files are here.

If you have someone in mind, or you simply want to know whether a particular situation is worth a conversation, get in touch — there is no cost to asking and no obligation attached to an introduction.

Article by Glenn Tellier (Founder of CRIE and Grupo Gap)